Material distributing apparatus



R. M. G.- SCHIRO MATERIAL DISTRIBUTING APPARATUS Dec. 28, 1948.

Filed Sept. 17, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Jawewboa. Raymond/11. G. Schiro,

Dec. 28, 1948.

R. M. G. SCHIRQ MATERIAL DISTRIBUTING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept. 17, 1946 Paten'ted Dec. 28, 1948 MATERIAL DISTRIBUTING APPARATUS Raymond M. G. Schiro, Milwaukee, Wis., assignor to Chain Belt Company, Milwaukee, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Application September 17, 1946, Serial No, 697,411

The invention relates to material distributing apparatus of the type in which a receptacle having a controllable discharge gate or door and mounted for traverse along an elevated trackway by power driven cable means is employed to receive the material at a station on said trackway and then transport it to any other place or places along the trackway, where, through remote control of the receptacle door, all or any desired portions of the material may be discharged. As a typical example of such apparatus there may be cited the well known boom and bucket mechanism widely used in conjunction with concrete mixers of the so-called paver type for the placement of concrete upon the sub-grade of a roadway or the like; and while not necessarily limited to this specific class of apparatus, for purposes of disclosure the invention has been illustrated and will be hereinafter described in connection therewith.

In general, the object of the invention is to provide an improved remote control for the discharge door or gate of the bucket or other receptacle, whereby the operator may have full control over such element at all times and under all normal operating conditions. More specifically, from his station on the mixing machine the operator may at any time cause opening of the bucket Claims. (01. 214-59) door to any desired extent within its limits of movement, similar closing of the door, and/ or its maintenance in any desired position within such limits, all of which operations may be performed quite irrespective of the position of the bucket on the boom, or its rate and direction of travel thereon. Further, the control is efiected through the medium of the cable means which are employed to traverse the bucket along the boom, without the use of a separate tag line.

One form of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, in which:

Figure l is a side elevational view, partly broken away, of the boom and bucket distributing apparatus of a conventional paving concrete mixer, with bucket door control mechanism constructed and arranged in accordance with the present invention applied thereto, the parts being shown in the positions assumed when the bucket door is fully closed;-

Fig. 2 is a sectional-elevational view, on a slightly larger scale, taken longitudinally of. the boom, illustrating the positions of the parts when the door is fully open; A

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary plan view, looking down on the outer end of the boom, andw- Fig. 4 is an enlarged transverse sectional view on the plane indicated'by the line 4-4 of Fig. 2, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Referring more particularly to the said draw ings, there is shown in Fig. 1 a portion of the discharge end' of a "paving concrete mixer having a mixing drum l I rotatably mounted in a framework |2 which carries a vertical bearing- 13 in which is journalled a tubular boom supporting member M to the lower end of which the inner end of the boom structure I5 is secured by a pin or shaft IS. The said boom structure comprises a pair of laterally spaced oppositely facing channel irons l9, the lower flanges of which provide a trackway upon which a wheeled trolley or carriage 20 is mounted for reciprocatory travel. The concretedistributing bucket 2| is appropriately attached to and carried byithesaid trolley, and. the lower portion of such bucket is provided with a discharge opening 22 which is controlled by a swinging gate-or door 23 operable between the positions illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 respectively by means of linkage 24 terminating in a bell-crank lever 25 which is pivotally mounted at 26, in a bucket-carried bracket 21.

The trolley 20 and bucket 2| are drawn inwardly along the boom l5-i. e. fromleft to right as viewed in Figs-1 and 2by an in-haul cable 28 attached to the trolley or carriage by a cable anchor 29 and extending therefrom to and par' tially around one of apair of sheaves 30 journalled on the pin oroshaft 16, from whence such cable passes upwardly through the tubular boom pivot M to and partially around one of a. pair of sheaves 3! mounted in a frame-supported bracket 32. From this sheave the cable 28 extends to and around a power driven winding drum 33 also carried by the frame l2'and provided with conventional controls (not shown) whereby it may be operated in either direction or held stationary at will.

The bucket and carriage are traversed outwardly on the boom by an out-haul cable 35 which isv the cable- 35 extends downwardly to and partly about the second of-the pairof sheaves 30, thencepoint in its swing, in which position it will be tion of at least alportion of which may be 'shiftedifl relative to the boom at will, whereby rto to such portion a movement other than its normal running bucket-traversing .motion, which ,addie.

tional movement is employedto effect partialor complete opening and closing of the bucket door at the volition of the operat9 shiiting oi the loop is accomplished as follows:

The sheaves 31 and 38 are each ash-iftably mounted on the boom i5 by having their shafts 41; appropriately .mounted. guides, 42 .for reciprdcation longitudinally :of, v the boom, which movements are effected throughllinks 43 and rock arm-so id married. .by rock.-shafts 4.5 and 45%,. the latter of which maylconveniently serve-to journal the. idler sheave .33.; ,2 Theisaid rock+shafts each carry .an; armAfinWhicharms are interconnected as by a rodA'l, and i-thesshaft @45 is further pro,- vided with. an actuating arm 48 rto which is connectedthe piston rod 49. of'ia double actin reciprocating fluid pressuremotor or ram 50 car.- ried lbythe b'o.om =l5.- Eluid un-derfpressuremay be supplied :to exhausted from the-respective ends of, the cylinder .of such :motor through suitable conduitsil which extend to the operators station on the mixer, where theyare. provided with v 1 appropriate conventional controls for securing the desired movements of the motor.

Throughthe constructiondescribed, complete control i'haybe had ov the bucket-(1001 23 at all times,lwhereby such door may be partly or completely opened, closed and/or maintained in any desired position at will, regardless of whether the bucket be stationary on the boom, or travelling at any rate in either directi-onthereon. For example, assuming the bucket to be stationary-at any. point on the boom, and the bucket door 2' closed as in Fig; 1; ifit be desired "to partially or fully open said-door .Ito discharge concrete from the bucket, the controls at the operator s station'on the ll ligel" will be manipulated to supply fluid pressure to the left hand end of the cylinder of the motor 50, thereby forcing its piston and piston rod 49 toward the right. This motion is transmit-tedvthrough the arm 43, rock-shaft 85 arms and connecting rod 41 to the rocksh-a'ft 45 to move it in syn-chronism with the rockshaft 45% The movement of-thetwp rock shafts in turn is transmitted through-their respective arms 44 and links 43 to the shafts M of the sheaves 31 and 38, which are thereby simultaneously shifted toward the'left; to the position-s shown in Fig. 211i the door is to be f-ully'opened, or to any desired position; short thereof if the door is to'be only partia lly opened.

Thi shifting of the sheaves 31 and as results in a shifting ofthe position of the loop or bight ing it stationary thereon, the effect of this movement of the cable run 35 is to rock the bell-crank lever 25 on its pivot 25, which motion is transmitted through the linkage 24 to the bucket door 23 to open the same. The extent of such opening is dependent upon the extent of movement of the cable run 35* toward the left, and therefore if the motor 'eil be stoppedat any pointshort of its-limit trigh-tward movement, opening of the door will be likewise stopped at a corresponding maintained-so long as the motor piston remains at rest. Obviously, a reversal of the motor 50 will-eiffe'ct a partial or complete closing of the door inasi lar manner.

"Them chanism is equally effective to control a or iheaeb 28 n 35 are running to tr verse the bucket in either direction on the boom.-- Suppose again that the door is closed as in Fig. 1, and the winding drum 33 is being 0peratedto wcause'the caloles to move the bucket outwardly, i.. e. iromright to left. Both cables 28 and 35 will be Illlll'iil'lgkflQly around their several sheaves, with that portion of the :cable 28 between the anchor 29and the .sheave 30,. that portionxofnthevcable 35 between the anchor I andsheave-SB, and run 35 f-the latter cable, all

moving from right to left,'while runs 35a and35 of the out-haul cable will be moving from left to right- Sinceall portions ofboth cables will be running at a uniform rate of-speed, and since the run 35.? is moving in'the same direction as the .anchor-iliand bucket 2|, there will be'no relative movement between, the said cable run and bucket which would effect a shifting of the bellcrank 25 with consequent actuation of the door.

However,v if the motor lobe now actuated to effects, shift of the sheaves 3i and 38 toward the left as above described, the effect will be to add the rate of such shift to the running speed of the cable run-35 and since them-haul cable 28 will pre vent'any acceleration of therate of travel of the bucket on the boom, there will'ber-elative movement betweenthe s-aid.-cable run 35* and the bucket which will result in rocking of the bellcrank lever 25 -and consequent opening of the doors Here again the degree to which the door is opened-will correspond to the extent to which the motor'pistonis moved; and if the motor be reversed whileoutward travel of the bucket continues, dur-ing'the return shift oi the sheaves 3i and 38;, i. e. toward the right, the cable run 35 will bedecelerated to aspeed below that of; the bucket, with consequent movement of the bellcranlc 25 the opposite direction; andsclosing oi the dooifl;

Obviously, the mechanism will function in a similar manner during inward travel of the bucket, except that in'thiscase a shift of the sheaves 31 and 38 toward theleft to eiiect opening of the door will decelerate the cable run ;3 5 to aspeedlower than that of bucket travel, while an opposite shift of the sheaves to close the door will accelerate therun 35 to a speed above that formed in the out-haul cable 35 relative to the? boom andbucket, and produces a lengthening 'oi the run 35 of such cable, a corresponding shortening of its run 35?, and a movement of the run BE t aId the left without either lengthening or shortening thereof, Since th e-cable s" 28- and 35 are not this time in motion :to traverse the bucket onthe boom but on the contrary are holdq y as well-fifdesired,

What is claimed is:

1. In material distributing apparatus of the class described, the combination of a linear track- Way; a material receptacle traversably mounted on said trackway and provided with a discharge controlling door; a traverse cable connected to said receptacle for moving it along the track- Way; means for driving said cable; guide means carried by the trackway and engaged by the traverse cable to provide a running loop thereof extending along the trackway; connections between a portion of said cable loop and the receptacle door, operable through relative movement between the receptacle and said loop portion to open and close said door; and means for shifting said loop-forming guide means at will to volitionally variable extents, to produce controlled movement of said cable loop portion relative to the receptacle, with correspondingly controlled movement of the door.

2. In material distributing apparatus of the class described, the combination of a trackway; a material receptacle traversably mounted thereon, said receptacle having a discharge controlling door; means for traversing the receptacle on the trackway, comprising a cable having a portion connected to the receptacle and extending along the path of travel thereof; means for moving said cable in either direction at will; means disposing a second portion of said cable parallel to said first portion and co-extensive with said path of travel of the receptacle, said second cable portion being movable in the same direction as said first portion for receptacle traverse; door operating mechanism carried by the receptacle, having an actuating connection with said second cable portion; and means for imparting movement other than receptacle-traversing movement to said second cable portion in either direction at will, whereby to actuate said door operating mechanism.

3. In material distributing apparatus of the class described, the combination of a boom providing an elongated trackway; a bucket traversably mounted on said trackway, said bucket having a discharge controlling door; a cable connected to said bucket for traversing the same along the trackway; sheaves shiftably mounted on said boom for forming a running loop in said cable, said loop having a portion paralleling and substantially co-extensive with the path of travel of the bucket; door operating mechanism carried by the bucket, having an actuating connection with said loop portion; and means for shifting said sheaves at will to change the position of the loop on the boom and thereby cause actuation of said door operating mechanism through relative movement induced between said loop portion and bucket.

4. In material distributing apparatus of the class described, the combination of a boom providing an elongated trackway; a bucket traversably mounted on said trackway, said bucket having a discharge controlling door; a sheave carried by the boom adjacent each end thereof and mounted for reciprocatory movements relative thereto; a cable connected to the bucket for traversing the same on the trackway, said cable being trained about said sheaves to provide a running lop therein having a portion paralleling and substantially co-extensive with the path of travel of the bucket on the trackway; door operating mechanism carried by the bucket, having an actuating connection with said loop portion; and means for simultaneously shifting said sheaves in either direction at will, whereby to impart movement to said loop portion relative to the bucket with resultant actuation of the door operating mechanism.

5. In material distributing apparatus of the class described, the combination of a boom providing an elongated trackway; a bucket traversably mounted on said trackway, said bucket having a discharge controlling door; a sheave disposed on the boom adjacent each end thereof, said sheaves being mounted for movements longitudinally of the boom; a cable connected to the bucket for traversing the latter on the trackway, said cable being trained about said sheaves to provide a running loop having a portion paralleling and substantially co-eXtensive with the path of travel of the bucket on the trackway; door operating linkage carried by the bucket, having an actuating connection with said loop portion; means interconnecting said sheaves for simultaneous movement thereof; and fluid pressure means carried by the boom for moving said sheaves in either direction at will to vary the position of the cable loop on the boom, whereby, through acceleration and deceleration of the movement of the portion of said loop which is connected to the door operating linkage in relation to movement of the bucket, said linkage may be operated to open and close the door.

RAYMOND M. G. SCHIRO.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,478,945 Foote Dec. 25, 1923 2,230,478 Ball et a1 Feb. 4, 1941 2,291,539 Faber et a1 July 28, 1942 2,414,771 Shafer, Jr Jan. 21, 1947 2,419,129 Fitzgerald Apr. 15, 1947 

